Texas
It was after the 1812 war, the war where the Americans battled it out with the British, when two Kickapoo bands resettled in Missouri. After that, in 1833, most of the tribe members then migrated to Kansas while all the rest went to Texas. In 1775, the King of Spain was the first one who granted land properties to the Kickapoo. According to the research of two anthropologists, the tribe's first ever territory was in the northern part of the Spanish Territory of Mexico. Years later, this northern part of the Spanish Territory came to be known as Texas thus the name Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. However, the tribe has moved from place to place due to the pressure coming from the government. Some of the members decided to settle in Oklahoma. Some stayed in Texas while others were lucky enough to have been given land by the President of Mexico. However, their land had poor quality of soil which forced them to work in the United States. These people were the ones who filed for the United States Citizenship when they were also federally acknowledged as the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas in the year 1983. The land that was given to them was located in the south of Eagle Pass in Texas. The tribe did not have concrete houses so the government prepared the land first, before formally handing it to the Indians. The tribe used to live in cardboard replicas of their ancestral wickiups under one bridge in the Eagle Pass. Many travelers who saw their condition where humbled by the looks of their lifestyle that many people thought the Indians led a poor life. The tribe soon built houses that looked funny for the non-Indians. They, however, decided to stick with this type of house because it has already been part of their history and culture. The houses that were built by the government in the reservation did not cater to the looks of the ancestral Kickapoo homes. The lack of tradition in the reservation urged many Kickapoos to spend most of their time outside the reservation in their homeland in Mexico. Mexico proved to be the place where the tribe could freely perform their ceremonies and rekindle the flames of their culture. Mexico also proved to be the only place where they could widely express their traditions without looking ridiculous. The tribe belongs to the Algonquian language group who are said to have originated in the Great Lakes Region. From these people, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas is classified under the Woodland Indians category. Most of their lives were spent in forests. They used deerskin for clothing. They had leaders called chiefs which could also be women. They are currently engaged in enterprises such as casino and community schools.
No featured news.